Over $15 million in conference advances granted to government officials between 2004 and 2008 are still outstanding and acting Accountant General George Abrams says that some of the persons who owe money have died while others cannot be found.
Questioned on the issue while appearing before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last Monday, Abrams said there is some difficulty in recouping the 74 advances, which totalled $15.058 million because some of the persons who owed money have died while others cannot be located. He said though that his department had made considerable progress in reducing the amount to $15 million.
According to the 2009 Auditor General’s report, “for the years 2004 to 2008 there were 450 advances totalling $141.755 million which were still to be cleared. However, an examination of the Conference Advances Register with the related records revealed that significant improvements were made in the clearing of outstanding conferences advances.” The report said that for the year 2009, eight advances totalling $680,090 were shown as outstanding while for the years 2004 to 2008, seventy-four advances totaling $15.058 million are still to be cleared.”
Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Neermal Rekha said that the Accountant General’s Department has implemented a stringent system to monitor the Conference Advances Register to ensure that there is more efficiency in the clearing of advances by officials. He said that there is now a complete register in place to monitor how the money is spent and when it is repaid. Under the new system, he said, a senior member of the department now monitors the register.
The issue of unpaid advances by travellers on the public purse had been raised earlier this year by the PAC and highlighted in the media. The issue was a prominent matter raised in the Auditor General’s reports of 2007 and 2008, which had highlighted that officials had failed to clear millions in conference advances.
President Bharrat Jagdeo had said that he had instructed Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh to write to those who had not cleared advances, urging them to do so or else their names would be published in the newspapers. Acting Auditor General Deodat Sharma subsequently told this newspaper that after the issue had been highlighted in the media, government officials began to make a greater effort to clear their advances.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry was chided for its practice of purchasing fuel on credit from GuyOil despite the fact its officials have been issuing directives to other ministries for them to discontinue this practice. Despite the repeated warnings in the Auditor General’s reports, Rekha admitted that the practice still continues but said that each fuel purchase is authorized. Discussions, Rekha said, are ongoing to have this matter addressed. “So it’s do as I say and not as I do,” Chairperson of the PAC PNCR-1G MP Volda Lawrence said, in response. PPP/C MP Bibi Shadick said that they needed to purchase fuel using cash and not on credit.
According to the 2007 Auditor General’s report, which was under scrutiny at the time, there were unauthorized credit purchases of fuel totaling approximately $7 million from GuyOil. In the 2008 report, total credit fuel purchases were tagged at approximately $17.933 million.
